The second night of the women's swimming and diving ACC championships at the AFC concluded with No. 18 Florida State in the lead after strong performances from their top divers. The No. 17 Tar Heels and No. 19 Cavaliers rounded out the top three with 227 and 219 points respectively.
The Virginia women received 64 of their points from the 500-yard freestyle, which they swept, 1,2,3. Sophomore Rachael Burke placed first with a pool record and NCAA automatic qualifying time of 4:43.24. Freshmen Kimi Kelly and Rory Schmidt followed right behind with NCAA consideration times of 4:44.87 and 4:46.85. This is Burke's second first place finish at ACC's, as she won the 1650-freestyle at last year's championship.
"It was awesome," Burke said of the race. "It was actually more exciting that we went one-two-three. I didn't even realize that I got the pool record until someone told me. I think going in there the only thing that mattered to us is that we went one-two-three."
In a meet that could come down to single digits, Virginia received a big boost when Maryland was disqualified in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The Terrapins had swum to a first place finish in the race, which would have resulted in 40 points, but instead received zero after one of their relay swimmers left too early. The Virginia team of Brielle White, Cynthia Roller, Shannon Hogan, and Katy Bland that came in seeded 6th moved all the way up to 2nd place in the race, receiving 34 points.
"Relays are double the points, and having the opportunity to move up just one spot, we were hoping if we could just get fourth or third, that would be spectacular," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "This meet is going to come down to possibly single digits, who knows where the two critical points might come from."
Freshman Shannon Hogan, who swam in the 2nd place relay team, capped off a solid day with a 5th place finish in the 50-yard freestyle. Hogan came into the tournament with the 18th fastest time in that event.
Five of the eight divers for the 1 meter event were from Florida State and they placed in spots 1-5, receiving 82 points from that one contest. The Seminoles also had the top times in the 50 freestyle and 200 freestyle relay.
Despite the Seminoles' success, Bernardino was very pleased with how the Cavalier women swam.
"Our objective going into today was just to stay in the hunt, try to stay within twenty to twenty-five points of the leader and try to make our moves as the week wears on," he said. "We feel that our best days are yet to come and that we can close the gap some and try to be as competitive as we can for the next few days."
In Wednesday night's two events, the Virginia team of Kelly, Katy Bland, Laura Lipskis, and Schmidt placed third in the 800-yard freestyle relay. North Carolina won that event and Florida State swam to victory in the evening's other relay, the 200 yard medley.
Even though the Cavalier women aren't in first place after one full day of events, they have strong lineups for the next two days and should be right in the thick of things.
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